This Fragile Breath
by TypingMyResolve
Summary: A constriction in his chest choked the air from his lungs, and his skin felt suddenly inflamed and too-tight. As the edges of his vision tinted black, it occurred to Hiccup that he might be dying. - A story in which Hiccup is revisited by an old enemy willing to do anything to save his own hide. (Dragons: Race to the Edge universe.)
1. Chapter 1: A Dead Man Returns

**A/N This story takes place after season four of the Netflix series Dragons: Race to the Edge. (There are a few spoilers if you aren't caught up, so I caution you if you haven't watched. And if you haven't, I highly recommend it!) This story won't be very long; if I had to guess, I'd say five chapters, max. Maybe six.**

 **I hope you enjoy! Please let me know what you think.  
**

 ** _HTTYD_ doesn't belong to me, thankfully!**

* * *

Hiccup sighed as he entered the Edge's smithy, dragging the back of his forearm across his forehead where beads of sweat left shining tracks. It was a warm day on the island- a rarity, by itself- and the sweltering heat of the forges would often send him off for fresh air on Toothless even on a normal day. Flights on the back of his draconic best friend were, indeed, the best way to slack off from his work, even if he always came back winded and far too exhilarated to properly work.

However, today there had been no Toothless awaiting him at the forge's doors, with his body low to the floor and tail waggling in eager anticipation of a flight.

"Alright, Toothless. Long day ahead of us," Hiccup had said that morning, throwing open the shutters to allow in a piercing ray of sunshine. Toothless whined in protest, shielding his eyes with a wing. "Up and at 'em! C'mon, ya lazy lizard!"

Hiccup's attempts to wake him were in vain, ending when Toothless swiped his tail across the floor to send Hiccup crashing down.

And Hiccup, his backside sore, had elected to let Toothless sleep in.

No, today it had been Astrid who'd managed to pull him away from his work (which so happened to be his latest customisations of the tailfin- though Hiccup now thought Toothless undeserving of the modifications, after his stunt that morning). Astrid's teasing tone and soft lips on the back of his neck made him go all sorts of weak in the knees (or his knee-and-a-half, if he was aiming for accuracy). When he'd turned to meet her lips with his own, each kiss in turn would drive any hopes of productivity that day a little further from his mind.

As he settled himself at his bench, Hiccup subconsciously brushed his fingers over his swollen lips, remembering how soft Astrid's mouth had been against his own. He smiled giddily as he settled in at his crafting table, cheeks still flush with heat and his mind buzzing like it did after he had a few swigs of Viking ale. Astrid kisses were certainly much better than uncomfortable aunt kisses on Snoggletog. (And less hairy, at that. The Haddocks were known to be quite burly and bushy- even the women. Hiccup, as usual, was the exception.)

What a way to start the day.

Absentmindedly shuffling some blank parchments and whistling to himself, Hiccup's mind wandered to thoughts of the new tailfin he'd been designing. Now that they had Gronkle iron at their disposal, Hiccup planned to use it to make the connecting rods and bolts less heavy, and yet more secure. It would be perfect for razor-sharp precision and speed, and even better for feeling as natural as possible for the Night Fury. Hiccup was far too familiar with what grim fate awaited the tailfins Toothless deemed bulky, uncomfortable, or just plainly didn't like. The splinters of his last failed creation still lay, untouched, somewhere near the back of the smithy, a warning that Hiccup was sure to heed in the future.

Reaching for his canteen, Hiccup popped the cork with his thumb and took a deep swig of the water. His nose immediately wrinkled in disgust, and he squinted a halfhearted glare at the offending lukewarm drink. _Blech_. He really needed to check the cannisters they were using to haul up the freshwater in; there was a slightly metallic aftertaste to the water that was not-at-all pleasant.

Hiccup was just sharping the edges of his charcoal pencil to begin a new sketch when he heard the familiar thumps of his dragon bounding up the wooden steps outside. Toothless appeared in the doorway, warbling warmly, and Hiccup barely spared him a glance as he began to focus on his schematic.

"Hey, bud. Good to see you among the living," he said distractedly, all animosity from the morning's squabble forgotten. (Hiccup never could stay mad with anyone- much less his dragon.)

Hiccup startled, the hairs on the back of his neck rising in alarm as Toothless's feral growl ripped through the air. Hiccup peered up at him, pencil plopping onto the desk as he cautiously stood, one arm extended outwards in alarm.

"Toothless..?"

The Night Fury's hackles were raised, his pupils prin-pricks and his teeth out on full display; Hiccup followed his line-of-sight into a corner where barrels upon barrels were stacked, full of supplies from Berk. He shot Toothless a questioning look that was returned with a gruff snort.

 _Yes_ , the look said. _There is someone back there._

Heart hammering in his chest, Hiccup's hand flew to his belt to hover just above the hilt of his sheathed dragon sword.

"Show yourself!" he demanded, quietly drawing nearer to Toothless. "There's an angry Night Fury out here, and his fire blasts are useful for more than just roasting marshmellows." Toothless roared to back the claim.

Cowed into action, slowly a brawny form materialised from behind the barrels. Behind the dark-rimmed, sunken eyes and hollowed-out cheeks Hiccup barely recognised the man. His eyes were laden with exhaustion and fatigue, and there was an unkempt air about him that indicated exposure to the elements. If he were anyone else, Hiccup would have been moved to give him a warm meal and place to lay his head; for this man, however, Hiccup felt nothing but incorrigible hatred.

"Ryker Grimborn?" Hiccup took an unsteady step backwards, his fingers tightening into fists. Toothless's nose pressed against his side, chuffing at his hand. "I thought you were dead," Hiccup continued, his voice hard.

The man grimaced. "That was the idea, wasn't it? Didn't wan' you lot to follow me an' finish me off like my dearly departed brother." He ventured a step closer to them but was halted by a curt growl from Toothless. With a brief glare thrown in the dragon's direction Ryker resigned himself to the floor, dropping to his knees with an inaudible sigh. He seemed to have recently lost a good amount of weight; his skin clung loosely to his muscle and bone like a too-large jerkin.

Hiccup's stomach had twisted into knots at the mention of Viggo Grimborn; it took him a moment to find his voice. "That was- I didn't mean for him to die," he defended, then shook his head as if clearing a mental obstruction. "That doesn't matter. There was no love lost between you two, so if you're not challenging me to a duel to avenge him, what in _Odin's name_ are you doing back here? Have you finally lost your mind?"

"Nearly," Ryker snorted, and then he coughed. It was a deep sound, one that rattled deep inside his chest like a rock in a barrel. Hiccup couldn't help but wince in sympathy. Ryker spat on the floor and then wiped his sleeve across his mouth. "I'm dyin', Hiccup. I need your help."

" _My_ help? That's rich." What Hiccup meant to be an ironic laugh instead came out forced and strained. "You tried to _kill_ me. You- you tried to kill _all_ of us!" Toothless began to growl, spurred on by the anger in Hiccup's voice.

Hiccup really ought to call for the rest of the dragon riders, he knew, but something held him back. Why would Ryker have come here? Did he really have no one else to go to for help but to the people who had killed his brother?

Toothless prodded at his hand again and crooned; _Are you okay?_ his eyes asked. Hiccup ignored him, his eyes never leaving the man on the floor. Stepping closer, his head tilted to the side, he asked Ryker, "What- _exactly_ \- is killing you?"

Ryker gave him a snaggle-toothed grin that lacked warmth. "You won' believe it."

"Try me."

"Well..." Ryker re-positioned himself so that his back was leaning against one of the barrels. "I seem to have drawn the ire of one of my top competitors when I returned to business. Got a nasty dosing of Hel's Brew in my stew. Didn' get a lot o' it in me, but-"

"You mean to tell me that you've been poisoned with one of the most lethal poisons in the archipelago?" Hiccup interjected incredulously. "Named after the goddess of the dead? And you want me to _help_ you? There is no known cure. You have to have already known that." This felt fishy; no, this felt _dangerous_. Even if Hiccup believed him- and he had to when he saw the look of death in Ryker's eyes- he didn't believe that Ryker was as helpless, or docile, as he was playing. Hiccup motioned for Toothless's attention, pointing up at the sky. The dragon understood his intentions, firing a plasma blast into the air even as Ryker once more vied for Hiccup's trust, realising he'd lost the inkling of sympathy he'd had.

"I was there with Viggo when he used the Dragon Eye. I saw where there's a cure for the poison in a rare breed of dragons down south. If you'll take me there, if we can find them-"

"You must be crazier than I thought if you think _for a second_ I would put my dragon, or my friends, in danger for a vermin like you. You tried to _kill us_ , or did you forget?" The rallying cacophony of the other Dragon Riders nearing the smithy pulled his gaze away, and when his eyes returned to Ryker inexplicably his heart softened. Something about the pale, sallow face of a man at death's door stirred empathy in him that he couldn't ignore- as much as he wanted to. "How long since you were poisoned?" Hiccup asked.

Ryker took a breath, gave a series of shuddering, quaking coughs, then blearily looked up at Hiccup. "A day, p'raps," he wheezed. "Hard to tell for sure."

"Are you here alone?" A pause in which Ryker seemed to hack up one of his lungs. "On second thought, don't waste your breath answering. I won't believe you, anyway." Hiccup made a mental note to search for any hidden men in the outcroppings of rock on the water. The last thing the Edge needed was a siege.

The heavy thuds of dragons landing just outside sounded, dispersing up his last dregs of nerves. "We'll make your final few days here as comfortable as possible. _In our_ _cells_." With that, Hiccup turned his attention to his shocked friends, his countenance grim.

It took a fair amount of soothing language and level-headed pleading to talk Astrid out of killing Ryker immediately. (The dragon hunter found that his difficulties breathing were increased tenfold with the blade of an axe at his throat.)

"Escort him to the cells," Hiccup said, after Ryker had been bound with spare rope. "And see to it that he doesn't escape," he said, with a pointed stare at the twins.

"I'm offended by your lack of trust in us, Hiccup," Tuffnut said with mock shock, placing a hand over his heart as he used the other to shove Ryker towards the door. "What have my darling sister and I ever done to draw your ire?"

"Yeah, what's your deal, Hiccup?" Ruffnut echoed, folding her wiry arms as her face squashed into an exaggerated pout. "Snotlout was the one who lost Viggo."

"Just _go_ ," Hiccup sighed, wearily pinching the bridge of his nose in consternation. He was beginning to develop a headache, and the concerning, smug look on Ryker's face in the midst of death was doing little to help. The man leered at Hiccup, his brutish features twisting into an expression Hiccup couldn't place, but he wordlessly allowed himself to be herded away, practically collapsed on the twins for support.

As the others filtered out behind them to watch the procession- Fishlegs shot him a harried glance as he left- Astrid lingered behind. Her hands found Hiccup's shoulders as he leaned heavily against a desk. He bowed his head slightly, as if in reverence to the gods, biting back a groan. The dull ache was morphing into a steady throb in his temples. Astrid leaned against him as her fingers kneaded the tense muscle in his shoulders and upper back.

"What a twist, huh?" Astrid said lightly, pressing her cheek against the nape of Hiccup's neck and closing her eyes. "I thought that guy was Submaripper food."

"He was in a dragon-proof ship," Hiccup said. "The Submaripper probably couldn't break it apart."

 _Do I wish it had?_ he wondered.

Hiccup shuddered. Of _course_ not. He believed in rehabilitation and reform- he believed that people could change. He didn't wish death on anyone; and that included his worst enemies.

That had included Viggo, too.

But leaving Ryker to die wasn't so different than killing him, was it? Maybe Hiccup Haddock wasn't the one delivering the death blow, but he was the one who was going to sit by as the man's very own body failed on him. Hiccup had seen men die of Hel's Brew before; he knew the look of defeat those men had held in their eyes as they'd died.

Shaken, but hesitant to let Astrid see, Hiccup lifted up a hand and squeezed at one of Astrid's own over his shoulder before he moved to sit at his workbench. "If he really was dosed with Hel's Brew, he'll be dead in a few days."

"You said he was talking about a cure," Astrid began tentatively, after a long pause. "Do you think he was telling the truth?"

"I don't see any reason for him to be lying," Hiccup replied flippantly, "but I'm not risking anyone's lives over that... that..." He took a deep breath; white-hot pulses of pain shot through his temple at random. "I believe that he believes it," Hiccup said finally.

"You're not even going to think about going after it?" Hiccup looked blankly at her. "It's just... not like you, to leave someone to die like this."

Gods. Hiccup really didn't need matters of morality to ponder while his head felt like it was being split open with Mjolnir, the mighty hammer of Thor. He rubbed at his eyes with the heel of his hands. Sparks exploded behind his eyelids in brilliant cascades of fireworks.

"I'll think about it," Hiccup said, if only to appease his skeptical girlfriend, and then, "I promise." Astrid smiled, bumping her knee against his before she turned to leave. She knew that Hiccup would want time alone to sort through his feelings and thoughts about the matter of Ryker's return, and if it was time he needed, it was time she would give him.

In the doorway she hesitated, turning to wave and beam at Hiccup, oblivious to the steadily mounting pain in his head. A commiserating look to Toothless and she was gone.

As soon as she was out-of-sight, Hiccup dropped his head into his hands, groaning softly at the knives in his skull. Toothless warbled worriedly, plodding over to him to nestle his head in his lap.

"It's okay, bud," Hiccup reassured him, scratching at the scales just above his nose. "Just a headache. I've survived worse." Hiccup shot him a toothy grin and stood up- too quickly- and saw stars again. His leg and prosthetic buckled beneath him, but before he hit the floor he felt the warm scales of Toothless's hide catch him. Hiccup gasped for breath, fingers scrabbling at the maroon cloth over his lungs. A constriction in his chest choked the air from his lungs, and his skin felt suddenly inflamed and too-tight. As the edges of his vision tinted black, it occurred to Hiccup that he might be dying.

Toothless gave a cry, pulling Hiccup's inert body into the crook of his wing even as Hiccup spluttered and wheezed, struggling to form a coherent sentence.

"B-bud... Get... Astr... _As_..."

As Hiccup began to slip out of consciousness, his eyes wandered up to his desk, where he'd been sitting, untroubled, a few minutes before, not knowing how close by an enemy was hidden.

 _The canteen_. His green eyes lit upon it in sudden clarity just before they slid out of focus.

Then, _darkness_.


	2. Chapter 2: What Dangers Lie Ahead

**A/N Thank you, everyone, for your exceptionally kind feedback! I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying the story so far, and I love to see what you're thinking after you read the chapter.  
**

 **This chapter is a bit slow, but it provides import dialogue/sets up later events. We haven't see too much of some of our favourite Dragon Riders, but that will be changed in the coming chapters.**

 **I hope you enjoy! Be sure to let me know what you think!**

 **(Thanks to AquaJinx for catching a mistake involving Meatlug.)**

 ** _HTTYD_ doesn't belong to me.**

* * *

Getting something stuck in your teeth is always a miserable affair. But, now, if a _dragon_ gets something caught between its teeth... _Everyone_ suffers.

Astrid retched as Meatlug's rancid breath washed over her, her pink maw wide open for easy access. _I should've just kept flying_ , she thought as she used the blade of her dagger to try to pry a stone from between two rear teeth _. I could've pretended to not have seen Fishlegs flagging me down._

But she was glad to help in Hiccup's stead if it meant that he would go unbothered a little while longer. She'd seen something in his eyes, back at the smithy- something dark, and very unlike Hiccup. Was the same man who'd once refused to slay a dragon- the same man who abhorred needless death and destruction- really going to let Ryker die? Astrid Hofferson didn't have the same rigidly north-pointing compass that Hiccup possessed (case-in-point: she herself had nearly killed Ryker on sight), but that was one of the reasons that she respected him so much.

 _Hiccup will change his mind_ , Astrid thought as she sat back on her haunches, loosed stone in one hand and the other hand scratching the appreciative dragon's jaw. Meatlug prodded the space where the pebble had been stuck experimentally, then surged forward to accost Astrid with her slimy tongue, murring with pleasure. _He'll change his mind, and when he does we'll be ready._

"Oh, thank you, thank you, _thank you_ , Astrid!" Fishlegs cried gleefully as his dragon's affections were turned on him. Astrid brushed a strand of hair from her eyes, huffed, and smiled.

"Ah, what are friends for, if not for picking chunks of rock out of their dragon's teeth?"

Just off to the side, Stormfly suddenly straightened up, eyes alert.

"What is it, girl?"

Astrid followed Stormfly's gaze to the path leading into the pavilion to where Toothless could be seen hurtling towards them at terminal velocity, churning up clouds of dust in his wake, eyes wild. Astrid immediately stood up, dreading the worst, and both she and Fishlegs exchanged worried glances as Toothless bounded into the clearing.

"Toothless?" Fishlegs asked. "What's wrong?" Toothless growled in agitation, pulling on Astrid's arm with his gums back in the direction he had come.

A thought struck Astrid like lightning. "Is it Hiccup?"

Toothless released her and bobbed his head in affirmation.

Astrid wasted no time in mounting Stormfly and rocketing off into the air. She heard Fishlegs and Meatlug right behind her, and on the ground Toothless managed to keep pace, vaulting fences and enclosures like they were nothing.

 _Gods_ , thinks Astrid, _please don't let Hiccup have gotten into trouble again._

* * *

Hiccup was underwater.

He wasn't, really, of course, but it was as good a description of his current state as any. His eyelids were leaden, refusing to respond, and his extremities, too (his arms and legs felt like they were trapped in Deathsong amber), rendering him only capable of lying still and listening to his surroundings. The only problem was that the sounds were incoherent, warped and muffled and small. It was like he was deep under water trying to eavesdrop on a conversation in a boat- and on top of that, the sailors were whispering.

Then, suddenly, he was wet; _actually_ wet, this time. He jolted as something hot and slimy enthusiastically slapped at his face. A tongue? _Oh, euck-_

Hiccup stirred, a moan wrenched from his lips. The voices quieted. A moment later he was able to move his hand to push away the concerned Night Fury threatening to drown him in saliva; he tried to speak, but only succeeded in coughing, which in turn led to choking. Someone cursed under her breath- _Astrid_?- and propped him up as he struggled to regain stability in his shuddering lungs. Hiccup hugged his middle as he shook, blush rushing thick and heavy in his ears. His temples throbbed with steady pulses of pain, and his skin was clammy and slick with sweat. He felt like he had a Monstrous Nightmare sitting atop his chest, as difficult as it was to draw breath.

"Just breathe," he heard another voice, male this time, soothe. He opened his bleary eyes and saw that it was Fishlegs, blinking down at him, his expression inscrutable. Toothless was laying on his middle, his forelegs draped over Hiccup's legs like a sentient belt. Astrid knelt behind him just out-of-sight, her arms warm around him as she braced his back. "Breathe, Hiccup. Don't worry about talking right now."

Like a true Viking, Hiccup always had been bad with instructions. "What..." he managed to choke out before he erupted into another series of body-wracking coughs. His eyes began to water, and his chest ached. "What happened?" he asked, his voice raw. He struggled to make eye contact with Astrid even as she continued to very pointedly avoid his gaze. Fishlegs was just as shifty-eyed, looking quite literally anywhere except into Hiccup's eyes.

"Uh..." Astrid hesitated, looking to Fishlegs as though for backup. There was something very wrong, Hiccup knew; if not for the pain in his head and chest, then for the way Astrid was clinging to him the way a child clung to his "little-Viking's first axe." She held him as though he was a bundle of sticks with no lashing: threatening to fall apart if she didn't hold him tightly enough.

A quick sweep of the smithy with his eyes brought all of the memories flooding back. He remembered Ryker; he remembered his fainting spell; he remembered gasping for air, and urging Toothless to find Astrid...

He remembered the water that tasted just a bit odd.

Astrid struggled to restrain Hiccup as he attempted to vault up off of the floor in a sudden excited flurry of arms and legs.

"That son of a-"

" _Hiccup_ , you need to lay _down_ -"

"-half-troll, mud-crawling-"

"Please, you just woke up-"

"When I get my hands on him... _I'm gonna_ -"

"Hiccup!"

Hiccup thumped back onto the floor, Astrid's hands pressing down on his shoulders. He shot her a sullen look. "That bottom-feeder poisoned me," he rasped wearily, the fire gone out of him like breath to a candle flame. He went limp against Toothless's side. "All those lines about needing my help, and... he..." He stopped, silenced by the morose look Fishlegs was giving him. "...What?"

"I checked your canteen you had with you," Fishlegs said. "It was definitely Hel's Brew he dosed you with."

All of the oxygen was sucked from Hiccup's lungs, even though he'd suspected as much. "Oh," he said simply, numbly. Then, "But I didn't drink much at all. Maybe-"

"I don't have to tell you how lethal it is, Hiccup," Fishlegs said, fitfully twisting the end of his tunic between his thick hands. "Even a small amount can kill a grown Viking in a few days." Fishlegs looked at him mournfully as though Hiccup was already dead and gone to Valhalla. Toothless whined pitifully, tousling Hiccup's russet hair with a warm puff of air.

 _"A few days"_ echoed in Hiccup's mind.

He vaguely remembered Gobber's words on the matter of Hel's Brew, back when they had attended the Viking sea-burial for the poison's victims. _"Gets in you, gets in your lungs, makes 'em shut down on you. Right nasty way to go. Reminds me of a beached cod."  
_

Oh _, Thor._

"Okay," Hiccup said, struggling to keep panic from creeping into his voice. "Okay, well, I guess I'll just go back to Berk. Gothi's dealt with this sort of thing before." " _Easing them into the afterlife_ ," she'd called it, all those years ago- Hiccup remembered thinking about how morbid of thing it was to say.

Astrid and Fishlegs shared another look. Even Toothless looked the dragon equivalent of abashed. "Oh, for the love of- is there something you three want to share with me, or are we just all going to keep staring at each other all morning?" Hiccup burst out in exasperation.

Timidly, Fishlegs admitted, "We kind of held a meeting without you."

"And we decided we're going to get you the cure," Astrid said peremptorily. For a long moment Hiccup just stared at her.

"...You're what?"

Astrid spoke quickly, trying to make her case before Hiccup could tear it apart. "The twins and Snotlout have gone to get Ryker from his holding cell. He said he knew where a cure was-"

"Astrid, that's gotta be exactly what he expected us to do!" Hiccup interjected loudly, wincing as his headache sent a wave of nausea rolling through him. Hiccup wished that he was standing so that he would be at eye level with the two. "What if he has an ambush waiting for us wherever this place is? What if this is _all_ a trap?"

"We thought of that," Astrid said. "We're not new at this, Hiccup."

"Don't you think he wants to live, too?" Fishlegs put it in his two cents'. "He's got the same poison killing him that's kil- _uhhh_ \- that's _in_ you."

"So he says," Hiccup protested even as prior experience told him that this was a lost battle. They were going to go, with or without his blessing. Still, he persisted, if for nothing else than the sake of good ol' Viking stubbornness. "If he really wants to live, then why poison the one guy he asked to save him?"

"So tha' you'd feel inclined to get the cure, _obviously_ ," a gruff voice pipped up from the doorway. Flanked by the twins and Snotlout, Ryker looked smug despite his ashen palour and dark-ringed eyes. (Hiccup wondered if he was as cadaverous in appearance as the Grimborn. He hoped not.) Toothless growled, extending his wing defensively over his rider, and Hiccup appreciatively rubbed at Toothless's side. "Pardon me for doubting your altruism, Hiccup, but it's always good t' have a back-up plan. If you were poisoned, I knew your friends get you the cure."

"That's pretty smart," Snotlout commented. Astrid glared at him. "What? Well, it _is_."

"Who said you're even getting the cure when we find it?" Astrid said hotly. "We can just as easily leave you to die." From where he sat on the floor, Hiccup had the perfect view of Astrid's white-knuckled fists.

"Astrid-" Fishlegs protested, seeing the flaw in her reasoning, but Ryker beat him to it.

"I'm the only man in the world who knows the location of and the ingredients for this cure, let alone the type o' dragon you'll need to complete it. I'll tell you how to get there on the way, and I'll show you where the main ingredient is when we arrive. _Not a moment sooner_. Let me die and your future Chief dies, too."

A heavy silence fell over them then, broken only by Hiccup's violent coughing. Even Ruffnut and Tuffnut exchanged somber looks.

"Fine," Astrid snapped after brief internal deliberation, much to Hiccup's chagrin. "But that doesn't mean I won't decapitate you with my axe after." Her fingers twitched as though itching to unsheathe her axe and finish him then-and-there.

"By all means," Ryker grinned, then dissolved, himself, into a coughing fit.

* * *

"This is going to be dangerous."

"I'm sure."

"The very _definition_ of reckless."

"Yep."

"You can't trust him."

Astrid ignored him. She already knew that- of course she did- but what other option did she have? She wasn't going to lose Hiccup.

It was a half-hour after Hiccup had been found on the floor of the smithy. In one of the Edge's many storage buildings, Hiccup was sitting slumped over at a table, watching with distant eyes as Astrid rummaged through the various crates, packing provisions and food into a basket that she would later attach to her saddle. As she ran through her mental checklist, Hiccup prattled on, hoping to dissuade her.

Odin's _sake_ , he was a persistent one.

"-across the archipelago. And you're just going to leave me here to worry? You could be attacked by dragon hunters, or eaten by a new type of dragon, and I would never even know."

Astrid paused, a blanket halfway to the basket. "Actually, you're gonna be going with us."

"What?" Hiccup's brows knit together in surprised confusion; this was the first he'd heard. "Why?"

Astrid's lips pursed into a thin line. "Because this island is at least two days away." _And you'd be dead before we made it back_ was left unsaid; unspoken or not, it weighed on them both.

"But..." Hiccup scratched absentmindedly at the back of his neck, looking down at the dragon curled protectively around his chair. "I can't ride Toothless like this."

In the last few hours Hiccup's condition had worsened; his strength attenuated, he could hardly walk alone without his legs buckling beneath him. Even breathing was as laborious a task as cleaning a Zippleback. (Fishlegs had suggested he rest, though he'd declined. Though Hiccup didn't want to admit it, he was afraid that he wouldn't wake up.) He didn't trust himself to work the gears for the tailfin, much less to stay seated in the saddle- it would only take one black-out session and he and Toothless would hurtle towards the earth like a javelin. He couldn't- wouldn't- risk Toothless's health for his own selfish cause.

Toothless seemed to understand his concern. He sat up erect, his green eyes almost daring them to separate him from his rider. Astrid smiled at him, walking over to scratch the underside of his head.

"I've already thought it through," she said. "Stormfly is going to follow behind, and you'll ride behind me on Toothless. _No one_ gets left behind." After all, how could she possibly leave Toothless at the Edge? His best friend was dy- was very _sick_. Hiccup needed Toothless as much as Toothless needed Hiccup.

Toothless appreciatively lapped at Astrid's face with his forked tongue, earning weak spluttering and a curse or two.

Hiccup tried to bite back a frown, not even noticing the comedic scene. He'd run out of arguments, but he still felt anxious. "Astrid, I just... I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to any of you because of me. There's a reason no one else would do this for Ryker, and we don't know what it _is_ yet. We could be flying into- into- to _anything_."

Astrid walked over to him, dropping onto his lap and mussing his already messy hair with her fingers. Hiccup relaxed minutely into her touch, one of his hands settling familiarly onto her waist. "We're a team, Hiccup. We can handle it. And even if we can't, we'll make it work." Glimpsing his troubled expression, Astrid pressed a kiss to Hiccup's too-warm forehead. "It'll all go as planned. You'll see."

As she stood to finish readying for the journey (partly so Hiccup couldn't see the doubt flicker across her face), Hiccup released a heavy sigh that morphed into a hoarse cough.

"You're not going to let me die in peace, are you?"

Astrid smirked. "Not a chance."

* * *

Ryker rested his head against a bale of hay, staring boredly at the ceiling of his little enclosed paddock as he processed the day's events.

So far, so good.

He'd dosed the dragon rider with enough of the poison to make his dire situation _imminent_ and spur his friends into action, which had worked just beautifully. Really, a strategy worthy of- well, not worthy of _Viggo_ , that was for sure. After all, even if Viggo had been known as the brains of their alliance, Viggo was _dead_ and Ryker wasn't.

Ryker coughed, his shoulders bucking with each spasm as his arms were tied behind him.

Okay, so he wasn't dead _yet.  
_

Luck and foresight combined, he'd managed to make it this far. Now he just needed to keep everything from unraveling when he revealed the key ingredient for the cure to the Riders. He'd managed to keep them from asking questions- or demanding them at the blade of another axe- for now, but when they reached the island he would have to tell them the whole truth.

He only hoped, for his own sake, that Hiccup Haddock's friends loved him enough that they'd be willing to betray him.


	3. Chapter 3: What Hiccup Doesn't Know

**A/N Thank you FanWrither02 (Thank you very much!), AquaJinx (Thanks again for letting me know!), Foxxlight (:D Thank you! I'm glad that you think so.), and Bellator Regina (I'm sorryyyy for the suspeeeense... Oh, wait. I'm not. :D Ha, I kid!) for leaving reviews on the last chapter, and thank you to everyone else who favourited it or otherwise just enjoyed it!**

 **Not including this one, there will be two more chapters. In the next one a whole lot starts to go down, so think of this chapter as... the calm before the storm. (Or just me being really mean to some of our favourite characters.)**

 **I hope you enjoy! As always, let me know what you think!**

 ** _HTTYD_ still doesn't belong to me; Dreamworks didn't accept the bribe of twenty dollars, unfortunately.**

* * *

"So, Hiccup. Hey, _Hiccup_! Hiccuuuuup-!"

Hiccup heaved a sigh, irritably curling his fingers into the fabric of his pants to keep the mounting urge to throttle Tuffnut at bay. Astrid felt the exasperation radiating off of him in waves and craned her neck to peer back at him, one of her hands reaching back to move his own to her waist, offering him a timid smile. He reflexively returned it though his eyes were too tired to fool Astrid. When she drew her hands away from his, Hiccup kept his own wrapped around her waist.

It occurred to him how thankful he should be that in all of Midgard, Astrid Hofferson herself had appointed herself his caretaker. He was pretty sure Fenrir Greyback himself could throw himself at Hiccup, jaws slavering, and Astrid would fight him off with nothing but her hands and mean looks.

She was basically the human embodiment of _sheer force of will._

The poison's effects on him were increasing with every passing hour, making him feel weary and achy, and the rocking motion from the beating of Toothless's wings (that prior to his, you know, _encroaching death_ , he'd rarely spared thought for) made him feel nauseous. He felt like he was in the middle of the ocean, in a storm, in naught but a dinky little rowboat. For a flight-junkie like Hiccup, this defilement of flying was a cruel, cruel irony.

Toothless, for his part, was doing his best to keep Hiccup as comfortable as was possible, flapping his wings only when the glide began to lose altitude. (Unfortunately, the gentle wave-like pattern this resulted in didn't fare too much better with Hiccup's jumbled insides. He'd dry-heaved into a sack he'd brought once or twice; Astrid had politely pretended not to notice.) Astrid, too, worried over him, clenching tightly to his arms when he was overcome with a coughing fit as though he would pitch sideways from the saddle and plummet head-first towards the water.

Which, quite honestly, was a possibility.

"Hiccup, lad! Can you hear me, or did the poison kill your ears first?" Tuffnut asked histrionically.

"No, I think it got his voicebox," Ruffnut supplied helpfully.

" _Ohhh_."

 _Don't they have an off switch-?_

If ever there was a time he'd wanted to physically assault the Thorston twins, it was today. Hiccup, ever the optimist, was one of few Vikings to managed to see past the twins'- uh- _idiosyncrasies_ , appreciating them for their out-of-the-box thinking, skewed as it might be. However, right now Hiccup felt entitled to a little snark and irritation.

He _was_ dying, after all.

"What do you _want_ , Tuff?" He was too tired to mask his aggravation. Tuffnut either didn't notice or decidedly ignored it. (The day Tuffnut Thorston learned to take a hint would be the day Muspelheim froze over.)

"By Odin, he speaks! _So_ , since we're flying all the way across the archipelago for you, I figured pretty soon you're gonna have a hankering to return the favour."

"Yeah," Ruffnut chirped breezily. "You'll owe us, like, a million ones. Big, shiny, gold ones."

Hiccup glowered at them in answer. Tuffnut grinned, unnaffected, as usual.

"Great! You're on board! So I was thinking the other day-"

"It's true, I was there," Ruffnut interjected.

"-and I said to myself, Self- why are we not try to breed different species of dragons? And I replied, Self, that's a good point! Why aren't we? Think how cute a little Nadd-onkle would be! So I've been meaning to ask you, if Toothless is ever free sometime-"

Hiccup blanched in horror; Toothless growled; Astrid lobbed a mug from the basket at Tuffnut's head, hitting him solidly in the helmet with a loud _clang_.

"Gods, shut up," Astrid shouted. "No one is breeding Toothless with _anything_." She peered back to Hiccup, still scowling. "They're insufferable!"

"You think you have it bad?" Snotlout hissed, swooping next to them. He gestured emphatically at the unhappy passenger trussed up behind him. "Ryker keeps complaining every five seconds about how he _hates the air, hates the dragons, wants to skin the dragons."_ That explained the makeshift gag in Ryker's mouth. He reminded Hiccup of a roasted pig all dressed up for Snoggletog- only a little more irate and much less appetizing. "Why did I get stuck with him, anyway?"

"Because we couldn't trust anyone else with the job," Hiccup said, appealing to Snotlout's egomania. (The truth: no one else had wanted Ryker, either.)

"Oh." Snotlout puffed out his chest with pride. "Obviously. I'm the best at transporting people. I transport things all the time. I'm the _best_ at transporting things."

Rolling his eyes at Snotlout, and trying to cleanse his mind of the unpleasant thoughts Tuffnut had incurred, Hiccup surveyed the dark ocean beneath them with bleary green eyes.

"We'll need to find somewhere to bed down for the night soon," Hiccup said after a moment, gesturing to the water. "We haven't seen any islands in a while, so we should take the first one we're given. Hopefully it won't be the habitat for any wild-card dragons." He paused. "Or, y'know, nefarious dragon hunters, as goes our luck."

Astrid tensed; he could feel her spine stiffen under his hands.

"Are you sure we should stop for that long?" Astrid asked carefully. "I think we should just touch down, feed and water the dragons and ourselves, and then keep going."

Hiccup frowned. "You know we can't do that. We need rest. The _dragons_ need rest."

Astrid straightened up, her countenance her objecting, and Hiccup knew to expect an argument. It was only a moment later, however, that her shoulders drooped and her face fell. "There's just so little time," Astrid said, her voice uncharacteristically small; Hiccup could hear the tremulous note belying her otherwise calm tone. He wrapped his arms comfortingly around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder, and she angled her head so that it rested comfortably against his crown.

Hiccup tried not to dwell on the fact that he might only have a few days left with her; that he might never fly with Toothless again; that he might never again see his father. He tried not to dwell on it because it was too much for him to handle, and so he did the "healthiest" thing he knew to do- he buried it, along with everything else, deep enough down that even a Whispering Death couldn't unearth it.

"It'll be okay, Astrid," he said, for her sake. Of course he couldn't know that for sure (and he didn't really believe it himself) but Astrid trusted Hiccup and relaxed visibly at the reassurance. She turned to press a chaste kiss to his lips but was startled when Hiccup jerked away, coughing into a clenched fist, the sound deep in his chest. Her expression hardened again as she faced forward.

Toothless crooned at her concernedly. Astrid ran a comforting hand along his scaly snout, echoing Hiccup's words: "It's going to be okay." Then, louder, she said to the rest of group, "Keep an eye out for an island. We'll touch down for a few hours to rest up."

Hiccup silently watched the way the rest of the group responded to Astrid, his green eyes faraway. His left hand, the one he had coughed into, was clenched absent-mindedly to his chest; a small, but still worrying, amount of blood painted his palm scarlet. A morbid thought wormed itself into his fever-addled mind.

 _We aren't going to make there in time; and if we do, it'll still be too late._

He shuddered; he didn't want to die.

 _If we fail, this going to be hardest on Toothless,_ he thought somberly. _He's not going to want to fly without me, at least not at first. Astrid knows where I hid the special tailfin I made for him in case I died; maybe she'll help him move on._

 _Maybe they'll help each other._

As little as Hiccup wanted to die, he wanted to abandon his family even less.

He leaned his forehead against Astrid's shoulder and closed his eyes; he didn't look up or speak again until they'd landed for the night.

* * *

Toothless blinked owlishly in the darkness as he heard rustling nearby. Peering back, he saw Astrid kneeling beside Hiccup, gingerly touching the back of her hand to his forehead. He could tell from her tight, worried expression that his human's fever had only worsened. Hiccup radiated heat like a lantern, and even with his limited knowledge of humans and their bodily needs Toothless knew that it heralded something being terribly wrong.

Feeling Toothless's gaze on her, Astrid looked up at him.

"Hey, Toothless," she whispered. "You're not sleeping, either, huh?"

Toothless huffed in reply.

"Yeah, I know," Astrid said, her eyes soft as she looked down at Hiccup's sleeping form. "I'm worried about him, too." She turned back to the fire where a few sparse flames weakly sputtered. "I'm going to get more firewood. I'll be back soon."

Toothless watched after Astrid as she disappeared into the dark treeline, then turned his attention back to his Rider. Hiccup was fast asleep, tucked warmly beneath the tough membrane of one of the Night Fury's wings. He was propped against Toothless's forelegs and chest, his arms folded over his chest and his head lolling to the side at an awkward angle.

Curling tightly in on himself, Toothless brought his tail whipping forth so that his tailfin flickered just below Hiccup's feet (or rather, foot and prosthetic). Like a Nadder to her hatchlings, Toothless's mind surged with unadulterated feelings of protectiveness and possessiveness at the vulnerable state of his best friend. Usually, when Hiccup was in trouble (as he tended to get into a lot- the wiry little human had a knack for sticking his nose where it didn't belong) Toothless would be able to leap into action- snap peevishly at a few weaker dragons, intimidate a dragon hunter into submission, or what have you- and _protect_ him. But this- this was beyond Toothless, and the dragon felt completely and utterly useless.

His Hiccup was hurting and he could do nothing to help.

Hiccup rolled restlessly to one side, then to the other; Toothless noticed that he'd begun to shiver, and a thin sheen of sweat glistened on his brow in the moonlight. Slowly, so as not to wake him, Toothless freed his wing and extended it more fully before tucking it back in around the sleeping Viking, effectively sealing Hiccup into his own private cocoon of wing and scales. The shivers didn't cease entirely, but Toothless was at least pleased to note that they subsided somewhat.

Resting his head on a foreleg, Toothless fought his drooping eyelids to stay alert. Sleep was tantalising, but he couldn't leave Hiccup alone. He didn't know when Astrid would be back, and he was worried that Hiccup would need him during the night. What if he asphyxiated soundlessly, or choked on his own blood, or-?

No. He wouldn't risk it.

Resigned to a sleepless night followed by a long day of flying, Toothless maintained vigilance over his self-ascribed charge into early in the morning, when the sun was just cresting over the tops of the trees in a dazzling explosion of colour.

* * *

"Mmf! _Mmrmf_!"

Astrid tensed, cracking a few sticks in her hold as she turned to stare daggers in Ryker's direction. The man had been carelessly deposited against a tree on the outer edge of the thicket the riders had slept near, still bound and gagged.

He looked worse than he had before the flight. Although Astrid felt no pity for his gauntness- after all, it was because of _him_ that Hiccup wasn't faring much better- they still needed him alive, and she didn't want Hiccup to die over a grudge (albeit an _understandable_ grudge).

Dropping her gathered twigs and sticks into a pile, Astrid walked over to Ryker, dropping to one knee and roughly- perhaps more roughly than the situation warranted- pulling free his gag.

"What do _you_ want?" Astrid hissed between grit teeth as Ryker coughed as his lungs were suddenly flooded with air. She'd been away from Hiccup for too long and her patience was already worn thin.

"Needed to talk to ya," he gasped, "away from the others."

Astrid's leery expression hardened. "And why would you need to do that?"

"It's about the cure," he said, "and this is somethin' I don' think you wan' Hiccup hearin' about."

* * *

The sun was peeking up over the trees when Astrid returned with the firewood. The fire had long since gone out so she began a new one with flint and the edge of her axe. She fed the flame until it was a hearty blaze and then outstretched her arms to warm her frigid fingers as she lost herself in grim thought.

 _I have to do it,_ she resolved. _Hiccup deserves a longer and happier life than any Viking on Berk, and even if he doesn't like it- even if he hates me- I have to save him. At_ whatever _cost._

Her thoughts were a million miles away, mulling over the new information Ryker had relayed to her, when she heard a rasping cough and a mumble from behind her.

Turning, she saw that Hiccup was gently shouldering aside Toothless's wing to crawl out from beneath the organic tent. The shadows on his face seemed bolder than she remembered, but she desperately explained it away by wavering light cast by the roaring fire.

She didn't want to face the reality of Hiccup's worsening condition because that meant having to face the fact she might lose him.

"Thanks, bud," Hiccup said weakly, scratching the scales atop the Night Fury's nose. "I'm sure you've been up all night. Try and-" He broke off into a wheezing cough that rattled his entire body. He blinked his watering eyes and smiled reassuringly at the worried Night Fury. "Try and rest while you can. I promise I'll be here when you wake up."

Toothless murred a quiet reply and closed his eyes, relaxing under Hiccup's hand; his rhythmic breathing that sounded a moment later told that he was fast asleep.

Astrid guiltily turned her attention back to the fire as Hiccup turned his soft eyes to her; she stoked the flames with a stick disinterestedly as he flopped down, cross-legged, beside her.

"How about you?" he said. She could feel his eyes on her and was suddenly glad that he couldn't read thoughts. "Have you slept?"

"Don't need to," was the curt reply. "I'm fine. You're the one who should be sleeping."

"I am. I _was_. I mean- I've been thinking..."

"Oh boy," Astrid said, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips in spite of everything. "Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third has been thinking. Isn't that one of the signs of Ragnarok?"

"Oh, ha- _ha_ ," Hiccup said dryly, though Astrid could hear the smile in his voice. "I'm being serious." Hiccup slipped his hand over her own; her breath hitched as Astrid made the mistake of looking up into his eyes.

His large green eyes, though dark-rimmed as they were, sparked and roared with reflected firelight, and every ounce of keen intelligence and thought was trained on her. In typical Hiccup-fashion, he looked not just at her, but into her, and though her. In that moment, Astrid Hofferson felt smaller and lesser than she ever had before.

"Astrid," he said, bringing her scarred and rough hands to his chest, cupped gently in his own, "if I'm dying, there are... things... that I need be known." His voice was incredibly quiet; Astrid leaned forward to better understand him, their faces now only inches apart. The rings under his eyes were more pronounced up close. "Things I need you to know. I've known you for a long time, and... well... the time I've spent with you... The things we've done together, built together..." He looked away, abashed, into the fire, then returned her gaze with all the intensity of a full-blooded Viking. Astrid's eyes widened with understanding at his intention. "Astrid Hofferson, I-"

"Hiccup, stop," Astrid said, quickly pulling her hands away. Hiccup first looked startled, then slightly hurt, though he quickly tried to mask it with an awkward chuckle. A rose hue seared his fair skin, creeping up his neck and settling across his face in an unmistakable blush as he stammered apologetically.

"I, uh- sorry, I just- I know it's a bit- _sudden_ \- and soon-"

"No, Hiccup, it's not," she said quickly, squeezing Hiccup hands, still clenched tightly in her own. Hiccup looked down at them, his expression inscrutable. "This just- you're not going to die, okay? And you shouldn't say things just because you think you're going to. You deserve your perfect moments, Hiccup." Hiccup slowly met her eyes, something akin to gratitude now reflected in them. "Don't let Ryker take this from you. Save it for your- no, for _our_ perfect moment."

 _And for a day when you can forgive me_ , Astrid thought bitterly.

"Okay," Hiccup said in a heaving sigh, clearing his throat a couple times to keep from coughing. "But, Astrid..." He smiled at her then, his eyes half-lidded and his smile crooked. "I- I _do_ , you know."

"I know," Astrid said. "And, Hiccup..." She looked down. "I do, too."

Her stomach churned with guilt as he leaned forward to press his lips to her own; her eyes stayed open until he pulled away.

 _Tomorrow,_ she thought. _We just have to get through tomorrow._

When Hiccup fell into a restless sleep Astrid set to work sharpening the edges of her axe.


End file.
